Virus World

Swabbing of bank machines, shop-door handles and other frequently touched surfaces in a US city revealed that 8% of samples were positive for SARS-CoV-2 genetic material, but that material was present in small amounts. Amy Pickering at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, and her colleagues repeatedly sampled 33 surfaces in public places in Somerville, Massachusetts (A. P. Harvey et al. Preprint at medRxiv https://doi.org/fgx9; 2020). The handles of a rubbish bin and a liquor store were the most frequently riddled with coronavirus RNA. All samples showed only “low-level” contamination, and the infection risk from touching one of the contaminated surfaces is low, the researchers say. The team found that the percentage of positive samples in one postal district peaked roughly 7 days before a spike in COVID-19 cases in the same district. Sampling of heavily touched surfaces might provide a warning of a surge of infections, the authors write.

Preprint of the study available at medRxiv (Nov. 1, 2020):

https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.27.20220905

Any responsible space-faring civilization wants to avoid infecting other worlds with their microbes. But are we too careful? It’s time to update the rules. That’s the conclusion of a panel that examined NASA’s rules for planetary protection. It was smart, at the dawn of the space age, to think about how we might inadvertently pollute other worlds with Earthly microbes as we explore the Solar System. But now that we know a lot more than we did back then, the rules don’t fit.

The Planetary Protection Office (PPO) handles these rules and how they apply to spacecraft. Not just for NASA, but for other partner nations too. The Planetary Protection Independent Review Board (PPIRB) produced this new report. The PPIRB was chaired by Alan Stern, a well-known American planetary scientist, and the principal investigator for NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto. Whenever humans send a spacecraft to another body, there’s a risk of contaminating that body with microbes from Earth. Eliminating or lowering that risk is the only way to guarantee integrity in the search for life. Great pains are taken to sterilize spacecraft, but the risk is never zero. Spacecraft are prepared in sterile clean rooms before launch, and back in the 1970s, the Viking landers were sterilized in huge ovens built just for that purpose. Conversely, we need to protect Earth from any unwanted visitors that might come back to visit us on one of our spacecraft. It might sound like the stuff of science fiction, but since we don’t yet know what microbes might exist on Mars, Enceladus, or some other world, we have to protect against contaminating Earth...

According to this new report, with more and more space exploration, and with more and more countries and commercial players involved, the old set of rules may need to be updated. “The landscape for planetary protection is moving very fast. It’s exciting now that for the first time, many different players are able to contemplate missions of both commercial and scientific interest to bodies in our solar system,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “We want to be prepared in this new environment with thoughtful and practical policies that enable scientific discoveries and preserve the integrity of our planet and the places we’re visiting.” Many of the standards were put in place during the ’60s and ’70s. Our knowledge of the Moon and Mars, the most frequently visited bodies, has grown since then. The entire lunar surface was initially classified as important to the study of the origins of life. But that hasn’t held up, and now not many scientists think of the Moon as very significant in that study. At least not all of it.

The Moon, and the Lunar Gateway, are likely staging points for future missions to Mars. Is there some risk of cross-contamination between the two? What about when spacecraft return samples to Earth, as the Mars 2020 rover will? The reality is that material from Mars has been carried to Earth in orders of magnitude greater than any sampling humans can ever do. There’s been a natural flow of Martian material to Earth over billions of years, as meteors strike Mars and send debris into space. Some of that debris has landed on Earth. The PPIRB said the overall risk of contaminating Earth with Martian material should be reviewed.....

Full NASA report available at:

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/planetary_protection_board_report_20191018.pdf

China on Friday said it was suspending imports from three Ecuadorean shrimp producers after detecting coronavirus in recent shipments, prompting one of the Ecuadorean producers to accuse China of "tarnishing the reputation" of the industry. China’s customs authority said samples from shipments from Industrial Pesquera Santa Priscila SA, Empacreci SA and Empacadora Del Pacifico Sociedad Anonima had produced six positive results. However, tests on the frozen shrimp and inner packaging were negative. The findings are the first positive results announced by Beijing since it began testing imported frozen foods for presence of the virus. “The test results suggested that the container environment and the outer packaging of the goods of the three companies were at risk of contamination ... and the companies’ food safety management system was not in order,” the General Administration of Customs said in a statement on its website.

Two of the Ecuadorean companies involved issued sharply worded statements noting that the virus was found only within the walls of the container, adding that China was exaggerating the potential risks. China began testing imported fresh and frozen food after the coronavirus was found on a chopping board used to cut salmon at a large food market in Beijing during an outbreak of the coronavirus among workers there. Many Chinese buyers have halted imports of salmon and the fish has been removed from supermarket shelves. There have been a total of 227,934 samples taken to date, Bi Kexin, in charge of food imports at the customs authority, told reporters at a briefing on Friday, including from the food products, their packaging and environmental samples...

Health authorities here confirmed that the Davao River had been found positive of the polio virus, prompting them to order a massive polio vaccination drive next month, targeting all children in the city.

Dr. Josephine Villafuerte, City Health Officer, said the water samples earlier submitted to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) confirmed the presence of polio virus in the Davao River, prompting health authorities here to set in motion a massive vaccination drive that would begin next month to stop the spread of the virus.

“In October, there will be an outbreak response vaccination. Every children is targeted to be covered,” she said. Villafuerte, however, gave assurance that there was no confirmed polio case here yet.  She said Davao City, President Rodrigo Duterte’s hometown, would be among areas for a massive vaccination campaign aside from the National Capital Region (NCR), Lanao del Sur province, Central Luzon and Calabarzon (Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal and Quezon) provinces. Villafuerte said the City Health Office would involve the community in the fight against polio resurgence. All village officials would be gathered on Sept. 24 for a planning session.

Village chiefs, she said, should be at the forefront of the fight against polio resurgence and report cases of paralysis immediately. She added that village officials should also be responsible for proper human waste disposal. There was no need for resorts to shut down swimming pools, though, she added. But she cautioned the public against swimming in the city’s resorts until the waters were declared safe.  She added that swimmers, especially children, “may ingest contaminated water.” She also asked resort owners to make sure their water is clean. “They should disinfect the water,” she added.

Parents should be aware of the symptoms of polio like fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiff neck and sudden floppiness of arms or legs. Villafuerte said if parents see these signs on their children, “please go to the doctor immediately.” Department of Health data showed that coverage of polio immunization in Davao City was only 72 percent from 2016 to 2018. Villafuerte said people who have had complete shots of polio vaccine need not worry.